Los Arenales climbing 23-12 to 29-12-2011

 This period of time represented the last week Kirsty and I would have together and it would be a week of ups and downs. We restocked in the attractive town of Mendoza with its beautiful parks and got to see my rattle snake i´d been after back in Brazil, only in a serpentarium though! We only spent 1 day here but it was enough for the girls dorm to be invaded by bed bugs. To avoid the truck getting infected the girls put a huge effort into mass extermination of all bugs.

 On our way to the mountains we stopped at a service station for a quick pee break, I slipped out leaving everyone in the back asleep. Casually I strolled out of the bathroom to see the truck pulling away from the service area. Having had this happen before I thought it was Chris´s idea of a joke so I played along and ran dramatically in slow motion after the truck waving my hands and pleading they stopped. To my dismay they did not stop and I watched as the truck pulled onto the motorway and sped away! A passer by had seen my efforts to catch up with the truck and said momento roja camion si´´?! Óff he chased. I sat down to bask in the sunshine. Half an hour later i saw the truck trundling back down the other side of the motorway and I knew i would not have to sleep on a bench - all was good. The truck was escorted back to the service station by a police man on a motobike. I thumbed down the truck and enjoyed a good laugh with the others, charmed kirsty had not even noticed my absence!

Argentinian police escorting Ernie back to pick me up. No idea how the policeman found out.

Alysroo: Alys clearly getting very bored on another long drive day.

Me getting very excited about mountain granite climbing. Kirsty looking on sympathetically!

 The drive into the mountains was stunning and signalled a big dip in temperatures. Out of the shorts n sandals and into the mountain clobber. We set up camp by a raging river in the Cajon de Arenales. This would be the first time wed get to climb famous granite ajugas (needles).

 Our stay also corresponded with Christmas which would be very weird without the family but unique in such  a location. Although it was warm during the day it was cold at night so weather wise it wasnt all that different from back home. Much merryment was had on christmas eve before we opened our 5 dollar secret santas at 1201am on christmas day. I recieved a wonderful bow and arrow kit from steve which I was sure would prove useful in the future. The next day I was ill, very ill. I could not move and spent the whole of christmas day lying in the sun getting burnt and bitten by very annoying horse flies. I was gutted as I had been so keen on a christmas day climb. In the evening managed to eat a little bit of the Steak and cheesy potato dinner and a couple of crackers. Not stuffing myself on christmas day was completely wrong!

Christmas eve celebrations

Chris dressed in his best for christmas day dinner.

 The climbing did not start till both Kirsty and I had recovered from illness on boxing day. We lcimbed a lovely 3 pitch trad route and a 4 pitch sport route. For the 27th we decided to climb the classic Armonica. 8 pitches of wonderful traditional granite graded 6a. It involved an early start and a 3 hour walk in to the base of the route up some horrendous scree. The climb was wonderful on solid grnaite with lots of pure crack climbing which I am keen to improve upon before I reach Patagonia and lots of laybacking. It took us 3 hours to climb the 8 pitches to the summit and then another hour to abseil down the north west face where the rope kept tangling on ledges and getting caught up, urghh! A great day!

Kirsty scrambling up scree to Ajuga principal and our route.

Typical cracks found on Armonica needle

Taped up and good to go!

On the summit of Ajuga principal as the weather detiorated.

A chilled out last day climbing the 7 pitch classic Filo del Caballito

The last day was spent chilling out on a beautiful route which had a variety of chimney climbing, wall climbing and slab. Kirsty led the single sport pitch and I led the other 6 trad pitches finishing on a lovely alpineesque ridge. The descent was a bit more dramatic than desired as I ignored an abseil station thinking there would be another one further down the rope only to find the ropes 5 metres too short. I popped off the end of the rope and had to downclimb the last 5 metres to safety. Good job it wasnt steep as I was about 100 metres off the ground at the time, silly boy!

Overall a very nice stay in the Cajon with some fantastic climbing. It was now onto Chile and Santiago for New year fun!

La Ola Climbing (15th to 20th December)

Kirsty preparing for La Ola with some lakeside training.

 We returned to Argentina and the lakeside town of Villa Carlos Paz to prepare for 6 days in La Ola which was one of the climbing venues I was most excited about since seeing videos on you tube. We chilled in VCP, did lots of cook duty shopping, personal shopping and as stores was exhausted a big stores shop for honey and dulce de leche, mmmm! In the evening we treated ourselves to a meal out for some argentian steak and a bottle of red wine.

Steak and red wine night in Villa Carlos Paz, another essential part of preperation.

Seb talks through the moves on the very steep, very good Thor (7a+)

 On arrival at the crag the overhang above was the first to come into view and SEb and I got very excited and a little bit daunted by the steepness of the rock. After establishing our camp in a small field behind a goat farm we went straight out climbing on the steep rock. I jumped on a steep 7a similar to an indoor route as it was full of jugs apart from a last move which involved mantling over the lip of the roof a fair way above the last bolt but with a big fall into open space if the move failed.

On my way to completing Historias veridias (7a) on the wave, La Ola

I was torn between working a hard route on the wave or checking out the other areas on offer. In the end the explorer in me got the better and I spent the next 5 days checking out the many different areas La Ola had to offer and the fantastic variety of climbing from slabs to vertical climbing and overhanging routes. The scenery around the area was also fantastic, very similar to Los Gigantes were we had been previously but with less far to walk which was a relief. After 3 days continous climbing on the sharp granite my fingers were suffering so had a rest day and spent the day bathing in the sun and dipping in the pools formed down one of the spectacular gorges.

Beautiful La Ola scenery, waterfalls, granite, clear pools and pampas.

Rest day activities, a dip in the refreshing water. A chance to soak aching muscles.

During the evenings we stretched and conditioned our bodies for the next days climbing and I spent a long time treating my tent in preparation for Patagonia after the leaking in Brazil. I did an awesome cook duty with Hannah where despite the meager budget we cooked up a masterful macarone cheese and vegetable curry.We were also treated to many lovely sunsets over the rocks which stretched for miles

Beautiful sunset over the farm.

One of my favourite things about La Ola (and south america in general) is the awesome leafcutter ant trails that occur. I spent a long time studying the ant trails and following individuals on their little journeys, quite fascinating!

See more photos following the link below
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Brazil Climbing 25th November to 10th December

After Rio we had three good looking climbing destinations before our return to Argentina.The first was Serra de Cipo. This was reputed to be the best climbing in Brazil and on my native limestone so was pretty excited.After a huge drive day leaving at 8 in the morning and not arriving till 11 at night we set up camp in a random field after failing to find the refugio. We woke up to torrential rain so was gutted not to be able to climb. This weather pattern continued without stopping for four days solid. It was gutting to make such a big effort to come here and not be able to climb. Even if it had actually stopped raining the nature of the rock meant it would have taken an age to dry out. Days were spent eating lots of pancakes (i had 11 one morning), praying for sunshine and walking to town to use the internet. I found a great game installed on one of the computers called UK truck simulator. I once drove from sheffield to Plymouth in my big truck, it gave me much amusement. Fancy that, a Uk truck simulator installed on a Brazilian computer in the middle of nowhere! We also watched about 3 James Bond movies. We have decided to start from the beginning and by the end of the trip we must have watched all of the Bonds, amusingly I have been put in charge of organising ´Bond nights´. My official title is JBOO (James Bond Organisation officer). One highlight of the stay at Cipo was walking through the forest up to a gorgeous waterfall and taking a bath in the pool above the fall, this also allowed me to do my only climb at Cipo, down the small rock face into the pool! During the rain I was disappointed to find out my tent is no longer the force it once ws as every night before bed i took a cup to bed and scooped out the pool of the water that had leaked in through the bottom. Boo.

Although we were due to stay at Cipo for 6 days after 4 we gave up on the weather and left for the next crag Cuscuzeiro which none of us knew much about. All we knew were that the approch trails were infested with rattle snakes! After a two day drive were the only incident was getting refused entry to a service station for being topless we arrived at the rock which we found quickly. In fairness you could see it for miles around as it stuck up out of the flat plains. We camped in the grounds of a small farm right under the rock and enjoyed a short walk across fields and then up through forest to the fantastic sandstone crag. On the approach trail was a sign warning of cobras on the path which I found exciting. The climbing was sport and on the best rock ever. Solid vertical red sandstone with good crimps and flat holds to swing around on, the climbing was mostly face but also some aretes and overhangs! Kirsty and I spent some great days climbing the classic routesand reaching the summit which felt a bit like a Tepui like the ones in Venezuela. One day I had a day with the boys and we climbed a 7a and a 7a+ which had some great climbing.Half way through the trip we went back to University in a nearby town for a mountain festival. It was a bit weird gatecrashing their festival as all the lectures were in portugese which none of us can speak but we did get some translation and a free lunch so it was probably worth it. We also got to mess around on the Universities climbing wall which was most fun.

On the 6th we left Cuscuzeiro a little bit wsishing wed had more time as the climbing was so fab and there were some harder routes I would have liked to have tried.But new rock beckoned and we were off to Sao Luis, a harder more compact sandstone and according to the Brazilians more good climbing but with disastrous access! We camped roadside just a short distance from a peage on a busy motorway and walked through lush forest to get to the crag.The rock was a bit like gritstone being quite rounded in places and with great friction. Sector 1 gave great sport face climbing and overhanging routes.

The second day we went to sector 2 mainly for the draw of the classic route Via de Totem. The access was a disaster. It took us hours to find the crag having run across the motorway. Eventually we found some bolts and abseiled in. This was very grit like, it was weird thinking I was on a gristone edge doing smeary moves and holding on to slopers whilst clipping bolts. Today the dreaded rain returned and we only got a few routes done before a slippery soaking walk back through the jungle to camp.The rain continued into the next day giving us a forced rest day. The fourth day continued to rain but by afternoon had cleared giving us that satisfied feeling of rescuing some climbing from a day that looked doomed. Turned out to be a great day of clocking up mileage on 6cs, should do wonders for the stamina. It was a fitting end to some wonderful climbing in Brazil, one day I vow to return in the winter when the conditions are slightly less hot and and a lot less wet!

On the 11th we made a 3 day epic journey back to Argentina where we were promised dry conditions and awesome rock climbing at La Ola



Click on the links below to see photos 
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Rio de Janeiro 20th to 24th November

Not normally a city fan but this was always going to be a highlight of the trip and it didnt dissapoint. We were staying just outside the city right by the beach for the first night but realising it took an hour and a half to get to the centre we soon moved to a hostel right in the middle of Copacabana. This wa only after wed had a party to welcome 1 new member to the truck and significantly said goodbye to many who are all dearly missed.

The first day we aimed to climb the famous sugar loaf mountain. After finding the crag after bashing through some jungle I started up a 3 pitch route that would take us to the summit only to discover 15 metres later that all the bolts had been removed from the climb, so followed a nervy down climb of the slab. The heat was something else, must have been mid 30s and trying to climb a slab in that heat is not fun, my feet were in agony and I was chalking up every other move as my hands were so sweaty. We eventually did a couple of single pitches before taking the impressive cable car (which starred in the moonraker bond movie) up to the summit. Views were fantastic over all the bays with little islands out in the Atlantic and the skyscrapers mixed in with sprawling favelas (slums). Behind the city was mountainous forest and the famous corcovado mountain with christ the redeemer statue on the summit. Quite a panorama.

Day 2 was a bit of a none starter as a result of the party the previous night but we managed to swim in the very cold atlantic and took a stroll along copacabana drinking cocunut milk out of small holes made in the cocunut. I loved the beaches. They were full of Brazilians playing sport or exercising all day long. Playing football, volleyball, futevolei (a mix of the two) running cycling or working out on the amazing workstations that line the coast. Worringly there was a display of how many violent murders there had been along th beaches in the last 4 years with a large outline of a dead body plastered on the beach, last count was just over 24000, can you believe that?! Decided the beaches would be avoided at night.Strange though as during my whole stay you never got the impression that this was a dangerous city.

The next day 4 of us planned to climb Corcovado mountain via the classic K2 route. Unfortunately although we had prepared meticolously the night before and had got up ealry to avoid climbing in the heat we were greeted by a torrential downpour that showed no sign of easing. Plans changed quickly. I had really been hoping to visit the favelas with a tour (not a good place to wander on your own) and learn a bit more about these settlements to inform my teaching. Unfortunately the tours were fully booked so Kirsty and I spent a rainy day walking around Santa Theresa looking for trams but never finding them. In the evening the rain having stopped I joined the locals and ran all the way along copacabana beach stopping at every exercise station. Got all the way to surfy Ipanema beach and saw the sunset from Aporeha rock. It was a truly special run!

The next day 10 of us went off to climb the corcovado. It would be a hot rock seige on the mountain.This turned out to be an expensive venture. First we caught  a taxi who said he couldnt take us up the hill because it was too steep. Instead he dropped us at the tourist tram which we paid to take us up the hill to the base of the climb. On arriving at the halfway station after arguing with the tram driver that we knew we werent at the top but we really did want to get off here we then had to pay another 18 reais to enter the park. A short walk up the road and under the north face of the mountain we soon heard monkeys. ONly it wasnt monkeys it was all the hot rockers at the base of the climb waiting their turn. The climb looked beautiful with the attraction of the wonderful views over the city. The rock was a rough volcanic rock which was a delight to climb on. Kirsty and I were the last couple to start the 4pitch 150 metre climb which we did in about 2 hours. At the end you scramble up a grassy slope and then hop over the railings onto the christ statue. With all your climbing gear and ropes dangling around all the tourists stare at you in bemusement! Great climb, awesome views and were able to meet up with all the other hot rockers for one final farewll to those who were leaving.

Resisting the temptation to buy a model Christ in all the tatty tourrist shops Kirsty and I spent our last few hours in Rio wondering around the botanic gardens which were fantastic. They had loads of different sections nd species of plants from all over the world, i especially liked the Atlantic forest section (an ecosystem under considerable threat in Brazil) and I enjoyed the Bromelian and orchid garden. It was a peaceful place to get away from the hussle and bussle of the city and a fitting place to end our stay.

We were now due to head north and find some of Brazils best climbing at Serra de Cipo national park.

See photos below
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Pedro de Bau

A short stay here but a welcome return to climbing after a week of touristy stuff. The landscape was stunning with green rolling forested hills and very friendly locals. It took us three drive days to get here from the Argentine border and as this region is very urbanised we found bush camping rather difficult. One night we found a football pitch to camp our tents but the following we just camped in a car park of a truck stop. As you can imagine trucks were coming and going all night so did not get much sleep. There were 19 people on the truck for this drive which meant a serious reduction in drive day sleeping space, people were strewn everywhere trying to catch up on their 40 winks.
In Bau we stayed in a mountain refuge clearly designed for climbers. This had a kitchen so was a great place for my next cook duty which id been partnered with Kirsty for so could show her the ropes. Better still there was a huge artificial bouldering cave adjoining the refuge which meant compulsory training before dinner!
We climbed at two venues from the refuge. The first day we climbed at a single pitch granite venue with very hard for the grade climbs. Was pleasant enough for an afternoon but the sharp granite crystals seriously hurt the finger tips. The next day we went on a bit of an adventure with the aim of climbing a long seven pitch on Ana Chata. Finding the bottom of the route was the first challenge. The mist had descended over night and we couldnt see the rock. After losing the path we went on a great jungle bashing mission to get to the rock with me practicing the skills id learnt in the Indonesian jungle to try and avoid getting bitten by nasties.

We eventually found the base of the route and were rewarded with a wonderful route with lots of trad climbing and lots of run out pitches (Brazilians seem to like sportingly bolted climbs) with plenty of exposure  on the last pitches 120 metres or so up. From the summit we had a great view of Pedra de Bau which looked a bit like the sugar loaf in Rio. The descent involved scrambling down through caves and across exposed terraces and was lots of fun before reaching the jungle just as it got dark and a little but spooky. Jon had a close encounter with a large snake hiding in a brick wall on his way back down, Im still waiting with baited breath to see my first snake.

It was with some reluctance that we left the Bau refugio, however it wasnt all bad as we were heading for surely on of the highlights of the trip - Rio de Janeiro

For photos please see below
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Iguassu Falls

 So after a 20 hour bus ride across the cattle grazing land of North East Argentina I made it to Brazil and the famous Iguassu falls which I remember wanting to visit since having it as a desktop background at university! After 3 months apart it was lovely to see Kirsty again who had booked us an awesome room in a hostel with pool and the most friendly helpful staff I have ever come across. We had four days to kill to wait for Ernie to catch up with us.
The first day we went to the Brazilian side of the falls which gave a stunning overall view of the falls. The handrails were also littered with beautiful butterflies who landed on the handrails to feast on the sweat of many western tourists! Most impressive was the Gargantua del Diablo (Devils throat) where the noise and sheer volume of water take your breath away.  The second day I got another stamp in my passport as I crossed back into Argentina and visited that side of the falls which took you on top of the falls for a close up view of all the different separate cascades. We had torrential rain this day and having been able to count on one hand all the rainy days of the trip so far this was actually quite welcome.We also saw coatis which I guess were quite attractive animals but having become accustomed to so many tourists were now just scavengers and could get quite aggressive. I kept my distance, (just in case they had rabies!).
That night the hostel were doing a traditional Brazilian BBQ with a great spread of salad, sausage, chicken and of course beef with some ground manioc (root from the jungle) to dip the meat in. This combined with many lime caprinhas and summer beers made for an awesome evening!
Our third day was another downpour interrupted by having to move hostel. It was a Brazilian bank holiday so reluctantly we left the awesome bambu hostel and moved round the corner to the inferior supernova hostel. We spent this day at a fantastic bird park seeing many macaws, flamingoes and the beautiful toucan. Colours were amazing. Unfortunately perhaps due to the rain the birds were all pretty subdued and just sat under their shelters looking glum. The biggest disappointment was something I  had majorly bigged up. I was so excited about seeing the mighty Anaconda but when I got to its enclosure I saw something more resembling a coiled up garden hose, I was so distraught it was tiny! Perhaps I was expecting to witness the snake swallowing whole a small deer, never mind.
The next day I found very interesting. We visited one of the largest hydro electrical projects in the world, the Itaipu dam. Built on the Parana river the dam is one of the modern wonders of the world but attracted a lot of criticism when it was built. The company are doing a good job of persuading the tourists of all the good work they do to promote sustainable development. For example they have built a spawning channel so as not to interrupt with breeding patterns and also a wildlife corridor so as not to interrupt the migration of wildlife. They also claim it provides Paraguay with 80% of their energy and Brazil with 20%. Bizarrely the local town Foz de Iguazu got no energy from the town. The video we were shown was very propaganderish (is that a word?), I would like to know the other side of the story.

That night we crossed the border again back into Argentina (passport getting rather full now!) to meet up with the others. We were staying in a very plush campsite with  a pool and bordering onto the junlge so the night was filled with the sounds of wonderful wildlife. It was here that I finally cracked and bought myself a football. It was worth it, that night on the local footbal pitch some Argentinian college students staying  in the same camp came and we had an awesome game with my team winning 15-9 and not a hand of god in sight! After two weeks of carting all my gear round with me it was awesome to be re united with the big red truck. Kirsty and I settled in and were soon ready to get to our next climbing destination.
For photos see below
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Truck disaster and Los Gigantes

 Leaving the wonderful Socaire we were bound for Tuzgle, the highest climbing in the atacama for us and according to he Petzl Roc trip the best bouldering in Argentina. So we were all excited. We crossed into Argentina with no problems and even got a game of table tennis in the border control. Then halfway into across a lonely strip of desert disaster struck as the truck ground to a halt. Collectively we push started the truck twice but the engine kept cutting out. Stuck we popped up our tents again in the middle of the desert and off went Seb and Tom again to find help. The net day was filled with lonely walks, movie watching and lots of eating before Seb returned in a big truck destined to tow us to the nearest town some 100 km away. It was a slow tow and at 10pm the truck abandoned us after Ernie collided into the back of the truck. They would come back at 2am with a longer tow bar but this was after I had settled into a deep sleep outside in my bivvi bag. Everyone else had squeezed into a corner of the truck. The only space left for me was to sit in the communal shoe box for the remaining 16km journey which remarkably took 6 hours arriving in the charming town of San Antonio de las Cobres at 8am. The town was a hell hole, an old mining town with no charm or character.
As the truck was clearly severely in need of TLC as a group we decided to abandon the truck and make our own way to Cordoba and then onto Los Gigantes in the Sierra de Cordoba range. This involved a 5 hour bus ride to Salta and then a 12 hour overnight coach to Cordoba which was most pleasant apart from the man refusing to let me get my sleeping bag out of my pack before getting on, I was outraged as the coach was freezing.
Highlight of Cordoba was the ice cream and steak night. We quickly moved onto the climbing. Beautiful granite hills stretching for miles.We stayed in our tents by a beautiful alpine stream which was great for bathing. It was actually nice to be away from the truck for a while, with no duties or routines it made for a very relaxed stay. The walk ins were over an hour so we worked hard for our climbs but once we found out where the non slab climbs were they were well worth it (hate slab climbing!) After 8days the truck had still not caught up with us and we had all ran out of money and food. So beating a hasty retreat from the angry refuge owner (whom I couldnt pay) we hitched a ride back down to Villa Carlos Paz where I left the rest of the group in order t catch up with Kirsty who was due to fly in to Iguassu!

To see photos from this leg please click below!
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